The Ultimate Shiny

Trick JarrettThursday, November 21, 2013

or many people, Magic is more than just a game. I mean sure–it is a game–but I mean also that it takes a very deep hold on many of us. It becomes integrated into our daily lives such that people frequently call upon it for big moments in their lives, even if their love for the game is just casual.

Take, for example, a pair of friends of mine who recently got engaged here in Seattle: Dallas and Kate. In no way can Dallas be described as a serious Magic player; he plays it every so often and he'll buy a few booster packs when a new set comes out. But thanks to a small tradition he and his now-fiancee have, he decided to propose using the "ultimate shiny." I'll let Dallas explain.

I play Magic: The Gathering and Kate likes to open packs and "find the shinies"—foil cards for you Magic players. I carefully opened a pack of Theros and replaced the contents with 15 cards with the art removed. On the top, I used a Stealer of Secrets foil since the blue matched her ring, the ultimate shiny. I secured the ring where the art used to be and re-sealed the pack. I seeded the idea of going to Card Kingdom and buying more packs after playing a game of Wizard's Tower the prior weekend. I told her I was excited about the return of the slivers because I had a Sliver Queen deck way back in the day. I also told her we could stop by Bauhaus, the coffee shop where we had our first date, to check out their new location. Trap set!

On the morning of the engagement, I sneakily put the pack in my sock so that I could plant it with the packs I was about to buy. At Card Kingdom, I bought a few packs and went to the bathroom to place the fake pack with the unopened packs. Luckily, Kate had decided to have a seat next to the door instead of wander around the shop with me, so I was able to get away with planting the fake. We made our way up to Bauhaus and Kate chose to sit in seats that were exactly like where we had our first date. Serendipity! I started opening packs and recruited Kate to help me find the "shinies" in the other packs. When she got to the last pack, she squeezed it right where I had put the ring. I kept my poker face strong while she looked at me confused and said, "This feels weird!" I shrugged and said, "I have no idea. Maybe they're doing something new?" When she opened the pack and saw the ring, I asked her to marry me. She started laughing pretty hard because she hadn't expected it at all. She said yes and then immediately added, "You butchered a whole pack for this? You checked to make sure there wasn't anything awesome, right?"

What a fantastic way to propose! Dallas and Kate are a wonderful couple and I couldn't be happier for them. Congratulations you two!

Patrick "Trick" Jarrett is the editor-in-chief of DailyMTG.com as well as working deeply on other web projects for Magic. He's an ardent Commander player with a beloved Kiki-Jiki Commander deck he's always eager to play with new people.